reasonably certain this t-bar isn’t operating currently (2026) because Mancelona isn’t an operating ski hill anymore and hasn’t been since 1994 with a kinda weird exception from 2019 through 2022 or so. During that era I did see it running & ride it a few time. At the time it was still very much capable of pulling a few humans up-slope, though it was not approved for use by MI LARA, and, the owner or tenant at the time may have been warned as such not to operate it.
I was fortunate enough to get roughly 10 rides up the t-bar on April 7, 2018 which was a powder day. The owner could not get it to run in the morning so a friend I was with was able to climb up the bottom terminal (in skiboots) and whatever he did got it running for the day. This was a very hush hush operation and in March of 2019 Mancelona got a cease and desist from LARA as they had no license or permit to operate the t-bar which spelled the end of skiing there. For that short operation time it was the second oldest t-bar in the world.
Lift Blog 
reasonably certain this t-bar isn’t operating currently (2026) because Mancelona isn’t an operating ski hill anymore and hasn’t been since 1994 with a kinda weird exception from 2019 through 2022 or so. During that era I did see it running & ride it a few time. At the time it was still very much capable of pulling a few humans up-slope, though it was not approved for use by MI LARA, and, the owner or tenant at the time may have been warned as such not to operate it.
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I was fortunate enough to get roughly 10 rides up the t-bar on April 7, 2018 which was a powder day. The owner could not get it to run in the morning so a friend I was with was able to climb up the bottom terminal (in skiboots) and whatever he did got it running for the day. This was a very hush hush operation and in March of 2019 Mancelona got a cease and desist from LARA as they had no license or permit to operate the t-bar which spelled the end of skiing there. For that short operation time it was the second oldest t-bar in the world.
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